Eircom settles with Big Music: will cut off file-sharers

Eircom has settled its case with the big music labels, which were suing it to take more action against illegal file-sharers. If the music labels come to it with IP addresses that they have identified as illegal file-sharers, Eircom will, in its own words:

<p>eircom statement - P2P INFRINGEMENT CASE SETTLED</p>

"1) inform its broadband
subscribers that the subscribers IP address has been detected infringing
copyright and

"2) warn the subscriber that
unless the infringement ceases the subscriber will be disconnected
and

"3) in default of compliance
by the subscriber with the warning it will disconnect the subscriber"

Sound like a climbdown by Eircom? Not so, says its head of communications, Paul Bradley.

"They wanted to get into our network, to implement a technological solution," he told me a few minutes ago. "Instead, they've agreed they're not getting that. They're going to get a third party to go off and try and gather information themselves as to who is using our network to file-share illegally. It's a key difference."

And then?

"What happens at the moment is that music labels need to go to court to get an order asking us to shut off a subscriber's connection. Under the compromise, they will come to us, using the same standard of proof they would have given the court. We need to be convinced that our subscriber is file-sharing illegally."

Comments

Ouch. Have very little sympathy for the recorded music industry. Would favour this if MP3's were not so ridiculously over priced - a low quality delivered at next to zero cost for the price of the CD. I'm sure this will stop file sharing on Eircom for about two weeks till a circumventing measure appears.

According to Silicon Republic, 'The labels wanted Eircom to install filtering software such as Audible Magic to help prevent the rise of music piracy which coincided with and they believe is responsible for falling music sales'.

A google for 'bypass Audible Magic' suggests that getting past the barrier is relatively trivial. so what does that leave us with? An assumption of guilt against any subscriber with a heavy usage pattern?

As soon as everyone realises its pointless to try stop these downloads the better. The music companies should stop wasting time and money on legalities and think of beter and cheaper ways to distribute their mucis!

Anderson: for now. Apps like PeerGuardian will be working adversarially against the investigative companies like Dtecnet, so it's going to be cat and mouse for the foreseeable future, I'd reckon, with Dtecnet finding ways around their blocklists and vice-versa. (this has parallels in my own experience in the anti-spam field ;)

Applications such as PeerGuardian adversarially be working against companies like Dtecnet research, so it will be cat and mouse in the near future, I would have Dtecnet finding the shape of their lists of blocks and vice versa.

As soon as everyone realises its pointless to try stop these downloads the better. The music companies should stop wasting time and money on legalities and think of beter and cheaper ways to distribute their mucis!

wow they have really been cutting down all these types of file sharing copanies latley hey. just recently i heard that they shut down twelve large websies and also siued and inprisoned the owners of piratebay.org..

Sex, pornography, these two issues are often very sensitive to deal with when you get to have children, I am one of those parents who prefer to educate their children at home rather than learn the wrong things with friends or in schools, I think many more parents should think the same way, so would avoid large numbers of unwanted pregnancies. Thanks!